Every good football team is an extension of its manager, an embodiment of a strategy, attitude and will that comes from a forceful personality. At West Bromwich Albion however, there is no place for a strong hand on the tiller.

Albion showed last season that new ideas are badly needed, and that someone needs to come in from outside and shake things up. The appointment of Alan Irvine illustrates that, unfortunately for our future as a Premier League team, the board did not agree.

Our structure has long been the same – a network of scouts identify players, having been given a remit by a sporting and technical director. The head coach is then consulted, but often overruled, as to whether he wishes to pursue the target.

When the scouting network works, and the sporting and technical director is on the same page as the coach (and is also as capable as Dan Ashworth) then this system is perfectly fine. When it doesn’t work, as it so patently didn’t last season, you end up with a glut of players with no real idea how they will gel into a team on the pitch.

Tim Sherwood says he wanted to bring in his own people (Picture: AP Photo)

So what is it then, that a head coach does at the Albion? The obvious answer would be that he stamps his mark on the side on the training pitch. Even this is now clearly no longer true as there is a huge caveat – your ideas have to be delivered through a filter of Dean Kiely and Keith Downing.

Any manager worth his salt would simply not agree to this emasculation. After all, it is their career – who would want to start a new job that could make and break your reputation only to be told that you could not work in the way that you want?

It is unsurprising that Tim Sherwood would not accept the job for this reason. As he told Talksport: ‘I think it is important you take your own men in and I was looking to bring in a couple of guys who I trust and who I know. When you go into a club you haven’t got time to try and train someone to your own thinking.’

To his credit he appears to have realised the extent of the rebuilding job that needs doing, as Pepe Mel did before him, and not been prepared to risk his career on the knowledge of Terry Burton and our coaching staff.

The only person who would accept such limitations is someone who is pleased just to be given an opportunity. Step forward Alan Irvine. No blame can be attached to him for wanting the job, all of that goes to the board who believe that he is the right person and this the right system to move the club forward.